Sync Failure, Greyed out songs and Track Not Available

[shahz]

I was really excited when I hopped on to Spotify, but the experience has been nothing but just a pain so far. It has been working fine before, but past few versions have been a nightmare. I'll still not give up and give one last chance to Spotify to fix the problem. I can see plenty of users have had the same issues, but all of them are scattered accross different threads. So I decided to make one cosolidated one, hoping to get a response.

Description

First problem: When I add music to my Spotify on desktop, they do not appear on my mobile device and tablet running Androids. 

Second problem: Some songs that were already in the playlist before the first problem started occuring are greyed out on my Android devices and when trying to play them, they say "The Track Not Available". But they appear normal on the desktop version and can be played.

What are the steps you took to get to the error/issue?

Literally all possible solutions.

1. Cleared data and cache of spotify

2. Uninstalled the application

3. Reboot the device TWICE

4. Reinstall latest version

5. Reinstall latest version

6. Enable 2G/3G option

On top of that, I tried creating a new playlist and move all the songs into that. The playlist appears, but still empty! 

Tried clicking the download button too, but of course nothing happened. You can't download an empty playlist, can you?

What I expected to happen

I expect that when I insert the songs in a playlist, they would appear almost immediately on my mobile devices. And all songs playable on desktop would not be greyed out on the mobile device.

Did you restart your device when troubleshooting in section B?

Yes

Did you read the connection troubleshooting tips?

Yes

Your device

HTC One

Samsung Note 8.0

Device’s Operating System

Android 4.1.2 on both devices

What type of account do you have?

Premium

Space left on your device

Taken from Application Management / Apps:

HTC One : 22GB available

Samsung Note 8.0: 8.2GB 

Space left on your SD card (if applicable)

HTC One : 22GB available

Samsung Note 8.0: 7.78GB 

Space left on your External SD card (if applicable)

Samsung Note 8.0: 53.49GB

Is your device rooted?

Both devices are NOT rooted

Are you using a custom ROM, if so which one, exactly?

Both running Stock ROMs

Did you set your external SD card as storage location?

Yes but this setting is not within Spotify itself of course.

Did you manually install an older version before installing the latest version from the Play Store?

No.

Do you have the same issue when switching between WiFi/Mobile Data (If applicable)?

Yes.

If you said "No", when does the issue not occur?

N/A

My mobile Spotify version

HTC One: v0.6.2.64

Samsung Note 8.0: v0.6.2.64

My desktop Spotify version (if applicable)

0.9.0.133.gd18ed589

My mobile provider and country

HTC One: Maxis, Malaysia

Samsung Note 8.0: Digi, Malaysia

My username

shahz

Do you have a Spotify (non-Facebook) login?

No

Are you logging in with Facebook or with your Spotify login details?

Facebook Login

Do you have any screenshots you can attach to more clearly explain your issue?

Not sure if its really needed?

[Peter__]

Hey! 🙂 

It sounds like you might be hitting the playlist sync bug in desktop client v0.9.0.133 (which has hopefully been fixed in v0.9.1.x which is currently rolling out so it should make it to you soon!)

Can you try copying the tracks from a playlist that is not working, into a new playlist on your computer, copying a maximum of 331 tracks at a time? There appears to be an issue with playlist synching on the desktop client with the Spotify servers when you go over that limit. It has been reported as an issue internally by Spotify.

I would suggest you try copying them over in batches of 100 and see how that goes!

Peter

[shahz]

Hey Peter,

Thanks for the response. I'm downloading the new version right now. I also just discovered that even the web player is not showing the songs, so I can confirm the issue must be on that desktop version I was using.

What about the greyed out tracks? I also need to bring forward that the greyed out tracks are also greyed out when playing from the web player.

[Joe]

Did Peter's suggestion about copying tracks into a new playlist not work for you?

[shahz]

With the new version, the sync issue has been resolved! Only thing standing now is the greyed out tracks on the devices that say "The Track is not available" when attempt to play it. It works on the desktop version, doesn't work on the android devices.

[Joe]

Are the greyed out tracks local files on your desktop (they'll have a note symbol by them in the desktop client)? If so, you may need to make them available offline.

[Heretic]

Same problem like explained here http://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Android/all-tracks-are-greyed-out/m-p/431934#M17171

I don't want to have my thousand files sync on my android, I want them playable like it was possible and running good on my iPhone !

I'm really sad like Spotify made the app for Android...

[Joe]

Jumping to conclusions isn't really helpful but a common reason for greyed out tracks like this is that the metadata on local files can't be matched with the spotify database either because the local files are poorly tagged or because the songs aren't available from spotify.

If you could post the spotify URI for one of your playlists (right click on it in desktop client -> copt spotify URI) I'll take a look and see if anything jumps out).

---

@Heretic wrote:

Same problem like explained here http://community.spotify.com/t5/Help-Android/all-tracks-are-greyed-out/m-p/431934#M17171

I don't want to have my thousand files sync on my android, I want them playable like it was possible and running good on my iPhone !

I'm really sad like Spotify made the app for Android...

---

[Heretic]

The Same playlist run good on my iPhone, the most are NOT greyed but on Android and on the web version of Spotify, same playlist are full greyed exepted some.

My songs are perfectely taged because I do it manually for each albums

Here a URI link : Darkwave - half are grey on my iPhone and on my Android and web Spotify they are ALL greyed.

[Joe]

Thanks for posting that. I've just looked at the first three albums and, on my UK subscription:

Powwoww Album is not listed.

Black Church aren't listed.

Untoten Zombie 1 is listed under it's German title here.

I would suggest you compare your local file metadata with the spotify database to see if there are issues with other albums you have locally. Whilst your tagging may be correct for releases in your country, the music on spotify may be releases from other countries which could be causing some of your issues. For your information, both music and metadata arre uploaded by the rightsholders.

I'm unsure whyy the situation is different on your iphone. Maybe more of your songs were downloaded to it?

[Heretic]

jwylot have you try to open my playlist on an Android phone ? iPhone and on the PC software ? to see if it's different ? I'm in Switzerland.

I don't ask me more question because on my iPhone the playlists are ok (no files synch and 80% NOT greyed) BUT the same playlist are WRONG on the web version of Spotify and on my Android where the most (maybe 95%) are greyed...

Tech @ Spotify have really to solve this mad situation

[Joe]

I used the desktop client which showed most of the tracks greyed out. As I said, there were valid reasons for the ones I looked at being greyed out so it seems likely similar reasons may apply to the others. Here I get about 40% greyed out. Have you tried searching for some of the greyed out tracks in spotify?

[Heretic]

I don't try to have all my files not grayed, I want to have the same 40% greyed on the desktop, Android, iPhone and web version of the player...

Joe, try the same playlist on an Android or on the online version of Spotify and come back here after to explain what you have see please 🙂

[Joe]

OK so I get the same total playable tracks with nothing greyed out since I don't have any of those files locally. 

[Heretic]

You mean you have for my playlist of 151 titles Darkwave :

Android : 60% of playable and 40% of greyed

Webplayer : 60% of playable and 40% of greyed

iPhone: 60% of playable and 40% of greyed

Desktop: 60% of playable and 40% of greyed

Personally I have :

Android : 0% of playable and 100% of greyed

Webplayer : 0% of playable and 100% of greyed

iPhone: 60% of playable and 40% of greyed

Desktop: 60% of playable and 40% of greyed

I made a test, On the Desktop Spotify, I created a "test" playlist and made copy paste of my songs from the Darkwave playlist in the test one. Now on my Android some are now available but not all like Untoten - Day of the dead for exemple.

It's really messy all this bugs...

[Joe]

Ah this is something I've seen before. Try this......

In your desktop client, open the playlist then select all the tracks, right click then unlink. Let me know if this solves the problem for you.

[shahz]

Hey jwylot,

I don't think I have added any music manually to Spotify. I mean, when we have the whole library (supposedly), why add our own? 😄

Here's the link to the song:

Deftones – Engine Number 9 and it does have a note sign.

This is the desktop list: http://imageshack.us/a/img707/215/spotifydesktop.png

And this is what appears on my tablet: http://imageshack.us/a/img827/2280/screenshot2013053117204.png

[Heretic]

---

jwylot a écrit :

Ah this is something I've seen before. Try this......

In your desktop client, open the playlist then select all the tracks, right click then unlink. Let me know if this solves the problem for you.

---

Solve nothing 😞 I've 100% greyed files on my Android

[Joe]

Hi. It shows up as a local file which won't play until I synch it for me - I'm guessing there's a problem with the metadata somewhere. If you right click on the track in your desktop client and unlink it, does it show up on your tablet?

---

@shahz wrote:

Hey jwylot,

I don't think I have added any music manually to Spotify. I mean, when we have the whole library (supposedly), why add our own? 😄

Here's the link to the song:

Deftones – Engine Number 9 and it does have a note sign.

This is the desktop list: http://imageshack.us/a/img707/215/spotifydesktop.png

And this is what appears on my tablet: http://imageshack.us/a/img827/2280/screenshot2013053117204.png

---

[Joe]

@Heretic.....you said that you moved the tracks into an empty playlist and it worked for some songs. Then you mentioned that the Untoten tracks were all greyed out. Let's try something to narrow things down.

1. Open your local files in the spotify desktop client and delete all local files.
2. Go to the settings for the desktop client and uncheck all local file checkboxes.
3. Restart the desktop client.
4. If this doesn't show the expected tracks in your playlist, copy thos tracks into a new empty playlist.
6. Let me know what happens on your android after this.